MARINA SOKOLOVA

Puffy has passed away.

Puffy finally died. If he lasted till November, he would have been with us for 3 years, which is very long for Roborovski hamster. Before he died he developed a big lump on his belly. And he died hugging it with his tiny paws. Poor thing. I hope he wasn't in too much pain. I got so used to him during 3 years. When I go to make a cup of tea, I stop by to see what he is doing, only to remember that he no longer exist.

Puffy's third christmas. He is a really old hamster now.

 

Roborovski hamster Puff.

Our roborovski dwarf hamster Puffy is almost 2 years old. This is very long for a roborovski hamster. Sometimes I joke that he must be a vampire, because he seems to live eternally.

Puffy’s face and head is getting whiter. I guess he is going grey with age. And he has very luxurious mighty whiskers now.

Puffy is much more relaxed and interactive now that he is alone in his home. When you talk to him he comes to you, unless he is sleeping, climbs on something and looks back at you looking happy to see you. Such a cuty. He lets us stroke him. It is best not to start from the head right a way, but stroke his back first. Then he lets you stroke his head and touch his, petals like, ears. Very domesticated little cuty.

Puff is moving on.

It took few days for Puffy to recover from death of his brother. I washed their home properly in order to remove Fluffy’s smell and help Puffy forget and move on. First few days he slept or sat still and seemed in shock or grieving. Now he seems all ok again. He built a huge nest out of paper in the elephant and happily playing, digging, jumping around, and interacting with us again.

Fluff died unexpectedly. We woke up in the morning and found him dead in the middle of their house. Considering, we only had them for few months it was a surprise. I thought they suppose to live for over a year. I guess, he had some kind of hamster illness that killed him so quickly. Do hamsters have heart attacks or similar? And he was the biggest healthiest looking one as well. Such a pity. The other one, Puff, looks a bit shocked and depressed now, I think. Poor thing.

My hamsters: Fluff and Puff.

When we arranged stuff in hamsters’ home we tried to guess where their “pee corner” is, figuring out that they wouldn’t want to sleep or eat near it. However, it turned out that they pee outside of their home. Recently, I so Fluffy, while stomping along the tube, press his belly and crotch against the side of it for a second and a drop of liquid came trough the hole and rolled along outer side of the tube. Then he continued casually stomping along after this very brief pause like if it is his usual practice.

My hamsters Fluff and Puff.

When we first got Fluff and Puff we thought that Fluffy was the bully one, because Puffy was regularly scratched on his nose. However, later I realised watching them that Puffy is asking for it. I mean really asking for it. He doesn’t want food from the bowl full of tasty stuff, he likes to go and literally steal it from Fluffy’s pouches. It obviously pisses Fluffy off immensely.

 

Another interesting thing about Puffy is that he likes to often sleep under a dripping drinking bottle. A couple of times I broke fights by spraying them slightly with water back at the time when I use to think that Puffy is the innocent one, and Puffy loved it. He would get excited and happy and would start to stomp about and lick tiny droplets of water.

 

Fluffy is very sporty - he can turn 3 times around the wheel using gravity after making it spin very fast. It makes Puffy envious and he would try to meddle with Fluffy’s wheel session or bury the wheel when Fluffy is asleep. Sometimes he piles on it all the debris he can get, but it is obviously not enough. Although a couple of times he did manage to bung it up so it stopped spinning. And sometimes he makes tiny mouse noises when he is asleep, probably dreaming about something.

 

They both got more used to us. They come to us and sniff in our direction when we talk to them as if answering back and they take grapes with their tiny paws from our fingers. Fluffy likes to lay in the corner of the tube pretending to sleep and watch me, secretly as he thinks, though the crack while I am sitting by my laptop. They are smarter and have bigger personalities that I initially expected from such tiny creatures.

Puffy in a pink elephant.

Check out one of my hamsters - Puff.